Last week, the governor’s staff presented a request to the Joint Budget Committee that would turn the leafy 500-acre campus into a training and treatment facility for the homeless.

The idea isn’t new, but the impact on the state budget is — almost $7 million over the next two fiscal years.

The details coming out of Gov. John Hickenlooper’s administration paint an intriguing picture of what could be. The facility would include a working farm on which program participants would learn workforce basics like showing up for a job and taking direction.

One of the major sticking points in a state as strapped as Colorado is going to be explaining how $3 million annually in operating expenses is an appropriate and prudent use of meager state funding when there are so many other needs.

The presentation made to the state legislature’s Joint Budget Committee on Thursday was a start.

But it’s clear from questions posed by JBC members and the length of time the committee spent on the issue — about an hour — that the administration has only just begun the job of explaining why this idea makes sense.

Roxane White, the governor’s chief of staff, explained to us that the local community has a history of embracing the facility, particularly given the history of Fort Lyon. It was a prison for just a decade. Before that, it had a long run as a veteran hospital.

“It is a community that understands how to help people in need of rehabilitation,” she said.

Otero Junior College is willing to partner with the program and offer remedial education. White makes an excellent point about how few communities would welcome a facility for the homeless.

As for questions of whether homeless people who live in cities would be willing to relocate to a rural area, White said many of the homeless are in urban areas not by choice, but because that is where services are.

There are 12,500 homeless people in Colorado, White told us. Finding 200 who would go to the facility for a chance at transitioning to a mainstream life will not be a problem.

The idea is appealing, but the finances give us pause. The governor’s office has requested $840,000 initially, and an additional $6 million over the next two fiscal years. That’s on top of $5 million in mortgage settlement money earmarked for a Fort Lyon project.

We look forward to hearing continued discussion about whether and how Colorado can afford to make this intriguing plan a reality.